Spaces
Built-space energy and Vaastu
Traditions describe homes and workplaces as having an energy of their own. Here is how we approach readings of spaces — and how they differ from building science.
Traditional ideas about spaces
Traditional belief
Vaastu Shastra is a traditional Indian body of knowledge about the layout, orientation and proportions of buildings. Aura traditions add the idea that a space carries the “energy” of how it is used.
Geopathic stress and the Hartmann grid
Traditional belief
“Geopathic stress” is an idea from European dowsing and building-biology traditions of the 20th century: that underground water, faults or a supposed grid of lines across the earth’s surface (the “Hartmann grid”, named after a German doctor who described it) make some spots in a building unfavourable. Dowsers locate these spots with rods or pendulums.
Experimental evidence
These ideas are not established in mainstream science, and no instrument has been shown to detect the zones independently of dowsing. The few blinded experiments are small: one found no difference in task performance between dowsed spots, with lower self-rated well-being on one spot (Augner et al., 2010); another relied on fingertip glow imaging, which is not a validated measure (Hacker et al., 2005). Older writing in this field makes striking claims about illness; those claims have not been confirmed by controlled studies, and we do not repeat them.
Home and Business Aura Scans
Practitioner method
In a Home or Business Aura Scan, a practitioner reads a space in these traditional terms and suggests changes such as clearing clutter, rearranging furniture, moving a bed or desk, or adjusting how rooms are used.
Practitioner method
No demolition. Suggestions are practical and reversible — placement, colour, use of rooms and simple traditional Vaastu measures. We do not advise structural changes; anything structural, electrical or safety-related needs a qualified professional.
What building research measures
Established science
Separate, established research studies measurable features of buildings — daylight, fresh air, temperature, noise and layout — and how they affect comfort and wellbeing. Symptoms that people link to a particular building (“sick building syndrome”) are studied through indoor air, particles, chemicals and the work environment (Norbäck, 2009). Some traditional suggestions, like letting in light and air, overlap with this research; others have not been tested. We keep the two kinds of statement apart.
Structural, electrical, fire-safety and health concerns in a building always need a qualified professional.